SC asks Centre, Election Commission to respond to Congress plea against poll rule changes
The Conduct of Election Rules were amended ‘unilaterally and brazenly’ without public consultation, the petition by party leader Jairam Ramesh contended.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Union government and the Election Commission to respond to a petition by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh challenging a recent amendment to the 1961 Conduct of Elections Rules restricting public access to poll-related documents, reported Bar and Bench.
A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar asked the Centre and the poll body to submit their responses by the week commencing on March 17.
As first reported by Scroll, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government on December 20 amended Rule 93(2)(a) of the Conduct of Election Rules, which stated that “all other papers relating to the election shall be open to public inspection”.
The amended rule says: “All other papers as specified in these rules relating to the election shall be open to public inspection.”
With this change – notified by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice, in consultation with the Election Commission – not all poll-related papers can be inspected by the public. Only those papers specified in the Conduct of Election Rules can be scrutinised.
Courts, too, would also not be able to direct the poll panel to provide all election-related papers for public scrutiny.
Ramesh moved the Supreme Court challenging the amendments on December 24.
The Election Commission, as a constitutional body responsible for the conduct of free and fair polls, cannot be allowed to “unilaterally and brazenly” amend important rules without public consultation, the Rajya Sabha MP said.
Appearing for Ramesh on Wednesday, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the court that one of the reasons given by the Centre to amend the election rules was to protect the identity of the voters, reported Live Law.
“Does your lordships ever get to know the identity of the voter otherwise?” he asked.
The amendments to the rules had come days after the Punjab and Haryana High Court on December 9 directed the Election Commission to provide videography, security camera footage and copies of documents related to votes polled at a polling station during the recent Haryana Assembly elections to advocate Mehmood Pracha.
The Election Commission had opposed the plea by Pracha in the High Court. The poll panel argued that Pracha was not a candidate in the Assembly polls, which took place in October, and therefore he could not ask for the documents related to the election.
